Digimon Debug
by Kaleidomon
Summary: This a special prologue preview/teaser for an upcoming project. Two (original) digimon haved lived their entire lives in a town dictated by the shady Church of the Holy Maiden, living the same day over and over due to a rigid schedule with every move monitored closely. When they decide enough is enough and decide to set out to leave and find answers, things go terribly wrong...
1. Prologue 1 - Trouble in Paradise

At precisely 7am, the pealing of church bells rang out over the Hallowed Hills. On the top of one hill, monsters of various sizes - digimon - began to groggily emerge from within several different coloured wooden buildings and began to file themselves into orderly lines divided into groups of baby, in-training, and rookie levels... similar, but not the same, to human age groups.

By 7:15am on the dot, a much bigger digimon of the champion stage - the 'adult' of the group - came out and began roll-call. There were never any latecomers, and no missed names.

At 7:45am, the digimon, still seperated into groups, were lead down the hill away from the huts towards a small village, the quaint buildings circling a grand fountain at the center. Across from the fountain, up a steep flight of chalk-white stone steps, stood a majestic church, of which the white walls seemed to glisten in the sun above. The groups would be stopped at the fountain, near the base of the steps, where digimon from the church - recognizable by the white scarves, robes or other such clothing items - would descend bringing down food for the three groups.

At 8:30am, breakfast would be concluded. Any digimon not finished would be scolded and have the rest of their food taken away, whether it was finished with or not. The groups would wash up, then ascend the stairs up to the church to pray to The Holy Maiden.

At 10am, the digimon groups would have learned 'level appropriate' lessons, had numerous passages read to them from The Book of Laws, and also The Divine Text.

After this finished, the digimon would be allowed out for supervised play, always monitored carefully by the bigger Champion stages.

At midday, the church group brought down dinner. Prayers were given to the benevolent Holy Maiden for the bountiful meal, and then the digimon would eat in silence. As with breakfast, should anyone not finish eating in time, their meal would be taken away from them and they would be taken away to be reprimanded privately.

The afternoons from 2pm right around to 5pm, would be spent working in the fields and orchards in Paradise. Baby digimon, up to rookie, would do the work, as the Champions supervised from the sidelines. There was never any shirking of responsibilities or duties, or napping, and definitely never anyone sneaking a bite of any of the produce.

At 6pm, the baby and in-training digimon were given a nap, and the rookies were allowed more supervised recreational time.

At 7pm to 8pm would be supper, followed by all digimon washing up at the fountain, in silence.

From 9pm to 10pm, the baby digimon would be taken back up to their hut up on the hill, whilst the in-training and rookie digimon would once more ascend the steps into the church. There, they would be told about the evils of Humankind, how they try to corrupt and taint digimon and Paradise, and how it was thanks to the protection of the Holy Maiden that they were safe there. Prayer would begin and end at 10pm exactly.

11pm onwards would see the Champion stages take the remaining two groups back up to their own buildings on the hill, where they would be locked in (as were the baby digimon before them), and would go to sleep, ready for the dawn of a new day.

And this was the schedule each day followed in Paradise.

From the day she hatched, up until now, Gytramon had never known it to be any different.

Whilst the digimon around her seemed content to just follow the same rigid, joyless timeline of events, day in and day out, with no change - Gytramon herself was growing unhappy.

It had started young. When she'd been a baby digimon, she'd always been a slow eater and had more days than not had unfinished food taken away when the "time-limit" for meal time struck.

When she digivolved to her in-training stage, she was forced to change her sleep schedule to stay up later to listen to the long sermons at the church that were always a chore to sit through. She found herself falling asleep constantly, and had been 'privately reprimanded' several times.

She was forbidden of ever talking about those 'private talks', but they were still a source of bitterness for her.

And then, when she had suddenly digivolved during the night from in-training to rookie, she was forcefully separated from her close friends and dumped into the rookie house, with complete strangers. It had been the most awkward and uncomfortable night of her life, and for weeks, she had always slept lightly and distrustfully, keeping one eye open, until she got to adjust and... tolerate her new bunkmates.

Obviously, any attempts to go back to her in-training friends would be met with severe punishment. This got her temporarily branded, and for a whole two weeks, she was assigned her own Champion-level 'Guide', who watched her every move like a hawk, until they were certain her "troubling behaviour" had been corrected.

Speaking of Champions, when one of her friends in the rookie house had digivolved - an Agumon into a Tyrannomon - he had been offered a job with the Church to become another caretaker. When he'd declined, the next day, he was gone from the village, and Gytramon had never seen him again.

Yes, everything here was strange, and somewhat sinister, she felt.

And every single day was always the same.

Always on a schedule. Always monitored. Always the same as the last.

There wasn't even any joy in meal times, as every single meal set was the same as the last.

Every breakfast meal was the same as yesterday's, as was dinner, and supper.

No change, no variation.

"I feel like I'm going to go mad," the little black horse-dog muttered under her breath, flicking her tail irritably, "Stuck in this podunk village that never changes. I'm so tired of this dump... I wish I could just walk away from it all. Set out on some grand journey. Just... anywhere but here."

Her companion, a blue wolf wearing a silk purple scarf collar attached to a gold orb, with purple marks adorning his face and flank, looked up from chewing off steaming meat that was still attached to the bone. Unlike humans, who get meat from animals, digimon grow their meat on the farms, amongst other things. And it was always piping hot and freshly 'cooked', even if it had been 'harvested' hours ago.

"Belay that talk, Gytramon," he warned her, in a hushed voice, "Talk like that is what gets you taken away..."

Gytramon smirked, lightly rolling an apple about under her paw, leaving it uneaten.

"Let 'em take me, then. It's better than working the farm and being rewarded with torturous lectures every evening."

She couldn't help but let out a devious cackle at his horrified reaction, before she continued.

"Anyway, it's rare for you to acknowledge the trouble in Paradise, Makamimon," she responded casually, and whilst not exactly speaking loud, she definitely didn't seem to care to keep as quiet as her friend on this topic of conversation, "Are you finally seeing it, too? How... dull things are? How any time someone digivolves to the Champion stage, if they aren't made into a glorified babysitter, they disappear? Doesn't it just make you want to go out on the open road to someplace new?"

"Whilst I admit, it'd be great if we could have a change of pace..." he began, between mouthfuls of lightly salted meat, "At least we have safety here... there's no fighting or wars like in the digital world of old, and the humans can never get us."

"Eh, humans can't be that terrible, surely? Seems like a gross, sweeping generalization. How many humans have you met?" She asked, the smug smile on her face only growing on clocking the scowl forming on his own, "See?"

"Whatever. I'm sure the church of the Holy Maiden knows what they're talking about."

Gytramon shook her head, and scooted over to sit shoulder to shoulder with him, the smugness gone. Her eyes narrowed, as she glanced around them briefly, through small friend pairings between the groups. And the ever watching Champions, whose presence was impossible to miss.

"And you're sure they're not lying to us?" She whispered, the question posed causing the meat to drop from his now slack jaws with a dull thud on the ground.

"This is fast approaching sacrilegious territory, Gytramon!"

"I know you're not THAT far up the Church's ass, Makamimon," she sneered, elbowing him in the side, "Come on. You know the score here, don't you?"

"You don't need to remind me," He mumbled back, his nose pointed down at the ground, a dour expression on his canine face, "This subject of conversation has been coming up a lot recently, more than I'd like it too."

Gytramon noted one of the Champion guardians looking their way, and shifted apart from Makamimon.

"They keep us on a schedule. They segregate us. They tell us stuff that definitely has no proof or evidence backing it about humans during the sermons. Nobody is allowed to leave, unless they've been taken away for breaking a rule... which nobody has done in at least a year. I really think there's more going on than we're being told." she said, giving her head a shake, "Nobody's asking why, either. Why is there a schedule? Why aren't our groups allowed to mix? Why the hatred on humans when nobody's ever seen one before? Why can't we leave? Why is it when anyone digivolves past rookie, they disappear if they don't join the Church?"

"This is making me very uncomfortable," Makamimon interjected meekly, hurriedly finishing up his meal, but Gytramon placed a paw on the base of his tail, effectively pinning him to his seat on the cobbled paving below.

"Good. Be uncomfortable. I want this to play on your mind, until the curiosity for the truth drives you as insane as it's driving me!" She whispered, as the bells began to ring to signify the end of dinner. "Listen, tonight, we're going to continue this discussion whether you like it or not. You're going to need to come to a decision, too."

"Wh-what sort of decision?" The blue wolf stammered out, hurriedly picking the bone clean of any remaining meat before the scraps and leftovers would be cleaned away.

Gytramon's narrowed eyes fixed on his own widened ones, and they shone with an intensity that had him swallow painfully from nerves.

"Whether you're going to leave the village with me, or stay living the same day over and over for the rest of your life."

* * *

At midnight, Makamimon felt himself being nudged awake.

Nestled between an Elecmon and a Dorumon, the blue wolf digimon rubbed a paw across his tired eyes, as he slowly realized what time it was, and remembered why he was being woken up.

And by whom.

"It's time." Gytramon whispered, her quiet announcement fully snapping Makamimon out of the lingering hold of sleep.

"I-Is it, really? I could've sworn I had another hour..." Makamimon protested, loathe to leave the wood-framed mattress on the floor serving as one of many beds lining the walls of the room. He was about to close his eyes, but Gytramon firmly stepping forward, letting her front paws thump on the wooden plank flooring had him hastily sit up and crawl out of bed.

"I need an answer," she started, homing right in on him coldly, "Like, now. I'm grabbing this chance whilst I have it, or we've lost the opportunity for good."

It had been a wonder Makamimon had even managed to fall asleep with this life-changing decision hanging over him, but the part of him that seemed to prefer to live in denial had won over, and he'd hoped he could have slept through it.

The morning would have come, and life would have arrived as usual. No risks, no nasty surprises. Safe and predictable.

Life as usual. No surprises. Predictable.

Realizing he needed to stop trying to run from this, he sat down and gave his most honest effort, weighing the issue carefully in his mind. Every bone in his body wanted him to not only turn away, but also knock some sense into Gytramon and get her to give up on this whole endeavor, too.

But an even bigger part, a small voice inside he'd been trying to ignore, had been steadily making itself known the past few days. And that voice wanted to knock him even more.

It was the voice that agreed with her. That despised this life, and how limited and stifling it was. How sterile and joyless each day was. Hating being controlled and having his time and life dictated, from the moment he was born into this world, likely to continue until he died.

And it sunk in. Rebirth. Even death wasn't escape, as digimon were eventually reborn again... which truly meant that he could look forward to an eternity of this.

Unless something changed. And that change had to start with him.

Gytramon noticed the tense, serious expression he'd been making the entire time and felt her own features soften. Whilst she didn't mean to rush him, she did need that answer... and she could sense he'd found it in himself what he wanted, going forward.

"So..." she started, gently, "Looks like you've come to a decision, then?"

"I suppose so," he sighed, as he glanced around the room for what would likely be the last time, "I'm... going for it. I thought about it, and I decided to be honest with myself... this isn't the life I want, nor the place I want to spend it in. I want... to go on to do more with myself, than spend each day repeating the same, unchanging, endless tasks."

"Good answer," Gytramon grinned, nudging him lightly with a paw, "And every journey begins with a single step, but in this case, there's just a few things we have to do first."

"You're right..." he replied, as the two headed out of the sleeping area and out into the small common room where the single door to the building was. The sight of it immediately brought Makamimon to a halt, as he realized the major problem before them, "Oh... right. I forgot that we're locked in each night... I've never woken up during the night for anything, so it slipped me completely. How do we get past this?"

"Not a problem, puppo." Gytramon smirked, her grin growing slightly as he cringed at her nickname for him, "I swiped these earlier."

She reached up and produced a set of keys she'd hidden in her thick mane. Her hair was so long and fluffed up that it had not only concealed the keys completely, but silenced any tell-tale jingling.

"How on earth did you manage that?!" he asked, as she sat by the door and tried the different keys until finding the one for their hut. He hadn't seen her take them, nor could he figure out when she would have found the time to take them.

After the shock wore off, Makamimon wondered if she'd ever stolen anything using this method before.

"After supper, there's a small window when all the Champion digimon help bathe the baby and in-training digimon," she explained, standing on her hooved back legs to check out of the window to the side of the door, "They're so busy trying to stop the smaller ones from drowning themselves in the fountain, they don't pay much attention to anything else. Real easy. Even you could do it, I reckon, despite your issues with decisiveness. Also why I said we need to take this chance now, because once they realize the keys are gone there'll be hell to pay and we'll be under hardcore surveillance for life."

"You will, you mean," Makamimon corrected, scowling at her.

She could be super annoying sometimes, especially when she poked her tongue out at him as she did then.

Quietly, she carefully opened the front door, which let out a worrying creak. Just as the pair were about to take their first steps on the road to freedom, however, a small voice halted them from behind.

"Wait!"

Makamimon nearly jumped three feet in the air, the thicker fur on his head and tail standing on end from fright. He bumped into Gytramon and lost control of his legs briefly before falling over himself trying to twist around to face behind him at the source of the voice.

Gytramon shook her head at him piteously, and smoothly circled around him to face their sudden small audience.

"You're going to leave Paradise?" asked a Plotmon wearing a sleeping cap, her soft voice carrying a surprising amount of nervous excitement.

"Yeah. We are," Gytramon replied casually, stating it like it was a simple fact, and not something that was until now completely unheard of, "We're blowing this joint and hitting the open road. Me and Makamimon, we're done with this place, and the Church, and farming, and-"

"And the schedule, and being told what to do and what not to do, and when to do things?" the Elecmon that had been sleeping beside Makamimon chimed in, his bright blue eyes wide with a sense of wonder one normally never got in a place like this.

More of their former bunk mates had woken up and were crowding around the bedroom door ways, straining to see over the tops of those in front.

"So y'all heard us talking, huh?" Gytramon made an awkward smile seeing just how many of the other rookies had turned out to see what was happening, before she turned to Makamimon and bowed her head apologetically at the wolf's scowling, "Sorry, puppo. My bad."

"I wish we could go, too..." a Shakomon sighed, retreating sadly into its purple shell a little.

"Me, too..."

"And me..."

Many sentiments expressing the same feelings were shared around the common room, enough that Makamimon was taken by surprise. Gytramon was clearly not alone in her feelings. She wasn't the 'crazy deviant wildcard' he'd thought her to be, when she'd first voiced these thoughts aloud.

If anything, hearing the others say the same had him inwardly admit to himself that he had to respect her. Out of everyone in the rookie house, she'd had the guts to throw caution and rules and the very laws of the Holy Maiden to the wind, wanting to take her fate in her own hands.

Of course, there was no way he would tell her this; her smug moments were bad enough whenever she was right about something, being honest in this situation would just fire up her ego to an obnoxious level.

And if that happened, he'd probably bail out and accept the endless monotony of life in Paradise over life on the open road with her.

Thankfully, Gytramon was not smug or obnoxious here at all. There was, instead, a softer, more sympathetic expression on her face.

"Firstly, whilst getting away from this place IS a major pro to this scheme, it's not the only one," she began, giving a sweeping look across the room as she addressed everyone present, "Ultimately, we all know this place, these rules, being forced into doing things we have no say in, as and when they want things done... I want answers. This can't be right, y'know? I don't know what can be done, but if we can find help out there, I will definitely come back and liberate y'all and our friends in the younger houses."

Gytramon's words had now definitely captured the attention of all the other digimon, Makamimon noticed, and seemingly more than a few hearts, too.

"Anyone that wants to come along can, if they dare. But this is a big risk, y'know. I'm fully expecting them to try to chase us down when they realize we're gone, and if there's too many of us, it'll make it easier for them to catch us."

The group fell silent. This time, it was Makamimon's turn to gaze about the room sympathetically. They were all doing what he'd done earlier; weighing up their options.

The majority opted to stay, but the ones who wanted to come were stopped by a cautious looking Gabumon.

"Hold on, guys. Let's be realistic, here. If all of you go with them, it's as Gytramon says... you up the chances of being caught," he explained, "On top of this, they'll have an easier head start escaping if it's just the two of them. We can all cover for them during roll call, but it'll be impossible to cover up the absences of ten digimon at a time."

Seeing that his logic was sound, an Alraumon spoke up, adding her thoughts.

"Aye. This might be our only chance of seeing things change, here. Better to let two go and return with greater numbers, than shoot ourselves in the foot by risking ten and having our hopes dashed forever."

Whilst the small group that had wanted to come with the pair were disappointed, ultimately, all the digimon present were in on the plan.

"So, I guess this is goodbye, for now," Gytramon announced, after everyone had gone back to their places, "Don't expect a daring rescue attempt over night, but we'll be gunning it for help as fast as we can."

"You take your time, don't go getting yourselves snatched up!" Plotmon called out.

Gytramon grinned, whilst Makamimon put on a dour expression and moodily muttered, "I certainly wasn't planning on letting _that_ happen any time soon."

* * *

Makamimon had no idea what time it was, but it was still pitch black out when they'd finally made all their goodbyes and left.

Gytramon's current course would take them around the village, rather than through it, heading towards the farms and orchards. Her reasoning is that, since they were already breaking multiple laws here, they may as well go out and take food for the road ahead.

"My feet hurt," Makamimon grumbled quietly, as they picked their way through grass that came up to his nose, "I've been fighting off the urge to sneeze for what feels like an hour, and I keep tripping on rocks and roots."

"Well, get used to it," Gytramon replied back over her shoulder, as she led the way forward, "Because this is what it'll be like going forward, too. The village has no roads leading in or out of it, and we definitely can't risk taking the usual pathway, because it'll be too risky. The great wild yonder will likely have ten times the amount of tickly grass and stones, too. And no matter what, it WILL get up your nose."

"Bother," she heard him somewhere behind her in the dark give an irritated snort as the long grasses had managed to get up his nostrils, "Double bother!"

"Told you, puppo."

Whilst the village itself was well-kept and tended to regularly, this perfectly sculpted landscaping stopped past the village border. Neither of them knew why these areas directly outside of the village were left to grow as thickly as they were; there would be no running away in this tangled mess of wood and flora if they were seen.

There was just a fine line bordering the deeper parts of these heavily forested areas, and places where it thinned out just enough to make travel bearable. Gytramon had picked this out, as they would still be able to traverse through it, as well as be afforded enough cover in the long grasses and bushes should anything happen.

They could just about make out the village past the bushes and trees on their right hand side. The streets were well lit thanks to the old-fashioned street lamps straight out of the pre-industrial area; one of the Champions would go about lighting each and every one.

The flames flickering inside seemed to make the lighting dance and flicker, which would have been a pretty sight to take in, had the stillness of the one 'road' circling the fountain not been entirely devoid of life.

Worse still were the buildings, mostly all one storey apart from the one single two-storey building at the far edge, all used as homes by the Champion guardians.

Every single one of them had their lights on, but were seemingly just as empty as the streets.

No movement or signs of life inside to say otherwise.

Makamimon was worried. The emptiness, and silence. When he nearly bumped into Gytramon from behind, he realized that for her to have come to a complete stop, she must have been unnerved, too.

"Curious, isn't it?" he whispered, sidling up to her, his nervous gaze fixed on the space between two houses at the silent square, "The lights are all on, but there's no-one about. Not even a night patrol. The houses seem empty, too."

"Yeah. And there's no way they wouldn't have anyone out on guard, with how closely they monitor our every move. They don't trust any of us, yet they've left this place wide open," she replied, edging forward through grass that thinned out, leaving little to no cover left bar behind the buildings.

She stood up on her hind legs, her ears pinned back, as she cautiously peered in through a window to the nearest house.

"Anyone?" Makamimon asked, who was still hanging back in the longer grasses, having instinctively flattened himself down until he was barely visible.

"Not a soul," Gytramon confirmed, after lowering herself down. Makamimon held his breath as she kept edging forward, keeping low to the ground, further towards the end of the alley between the buildings towards the brightly-lit square.

"Gytramon?!" Makamimon hissed, but he barely made out her silhouette as she held up her paw for silence.

She was crouched down behind a large wooden crate, looking past the fountain, up the vast stone steps that lead up to the Church that watched over the entire town. The lights were on there, too, but not as brightly as out around the fountain.

Her long, thin ears rose, and she strained herself.

The night being as still as it was, with no wind to stir the trees and bushes, meant that she could barely make out voices from the church. Was there seriously another sermon going on at this hour? Why? She'd never known of any super late night church activity before tonight.

Whilst it answered one question on the whereabouts of the caretakers, it posed more questions that had her curiosity itching.

She made her way back to the long grasses, and Makamimon heard himself release the breath he'd been subconsciously holding the entire time.

"They're all up at the church. I think they're having some kind of sermon up there, or something," she informed him, and without waiting around, set off walking again, "I'm dying to find out what's going on up there..."

Makamimon managed to splutter out a "w-wait!" on seeing her march off without him, her gait full of purpose. He knew exactly what was on her mind.

"W-We mustn't!" he stammered, stumbling over the rougher terrain as he fought to keep up with her, "Don't compromise this for us, you really built up the hopes of everyone back at the rookie house! If you go to check this out, you risk blowing this up in our faces! I mean, i-isn't this the best time to escape, whilst they're having a sermon? This is perfect timing, right?!"

This had her stop in her tracks and stomp one of her hooves irritably.

"I know what's at stake. I haven't forgot. But something is telling me that something's not right with the Church," she shot him a look over her shoulder before adding, "Don't forget, the Church is in control over everything here. They're behind the schedule and planning that runs everything here. They're definitely up to something."

"Please," he pleaded, now having caught up to her to walk by her side, so he could at least see her eye to eye, "Don't investigate. Just on this one thing. Please... you know what they say, that curiosity killed the cat..."

"And satisfaction brought it back," she quipped back stiffly.

Makamimon fell back, feeling deflated. This night could very well end poorly if they made the wrong moves, and for all the get-up and go and guts Gytramon had, her major flaw was her impulsiveness and inability to say no to herself.

But...

"But... as much as I hate to pass up what could be juicy information, I'll relent to you this time, Makamimon."

She let out a sigh of resignation that brought much-needed relief to the troubled wolf's ears, "The stakes are just too high. I suppose we'll find out what the heck is up with this joint in due time, huh?"

"Thank you, oh, thank you..." Makamimon near began to kiss her hooves in gratitude for this wise decision, which had her shoot him a look of disgust.

"Steady on, puppo. I get you're relieved, but no need to take it that far! You come near my hooves again, and you'll get what you want alright, right in the kisser!"

* * *

Some time later, and the village was just a series of small twinkling lights behind them. The church, being elevated up on a hill above it, would stay in sight for far longer.

The lonely pair walked down the dirt road that lead out into the farmland, fields of multicolour plants either side of them swaying in the gentle night breeze. Such strange and alien vegetation was unlike anything that could be found in the human world, but were an all-too familiar sight for the two travellers.

Trees with magenta leaves and swirling patterns on the bark bore fruits in spherical, square and pyramid shapes.

Clouds of steam in the distance near a big barn full of old-fashioned farming equipment signified the meat farm.

All normal, standard sights for digimon born and bred here.

"I wonder what humans eat," Gytramon said out loud, able to talk normally now the village was far behind them.

"What made you bring those up?" Makamimon asked, unable to fathom her thought processes half the time. He'd known her for a long time now, and she still had a habit of coming out with things like this that threw him for a loop.

"Just wondering, in case we bump into any on the road," she mused. Her back was to him, where she was as always taking the lead, but Makamimon felt certain a part of her was teasing him. "Maybe they eat digimon."

Gytramon grinned on getting the reaction she wanted out of him, which was one of horror and disgust.

"Don't be ridiculous! Anyway, humans can't come here. Or at least, not that I know of..."

"Not that you know of," She repeated back to him, "And because you hardly know anything of the world beyond Paradise, that means nothing is off the table."

Makamimon spat off to the side, sulking.

"You hardly know anything of the world, either. Last I checked, you've never left Paradise until tonight either. So you're no expert."

"I'm just sayin', never say never," she replied in an off-hand manner, completely dismissing his dour tone.

He sighed and shook his head. As annoying as she was, it was oddly comforting in a way. Though it wasn't often, this was how they normally talked back at the village during the rare times the caretakers were busy with the smaller digimon.

It definitely took his mind off the stress of their great undertaking, at least.

He hadn't thought about the more worrying and pressing matters of this whole endeavor since leaving the village.

"Do you remember Monochromon?" she asked, once again bringing up a new topic out of the blue. Makamimon had a sneaking suspicion that, knowing her, it tied in to the earlier subject somehow.

"Vaguely. I was born around the time she retired."

Gytramon blanched slightly but held her tongue in regards to 'retirement'.

"She was very old, and told us many stories in the baby and in-training groups. Not that she was supposed to;I always maintained she was the only good Champion in the village..." Gytramon started, before shaking herself out of reminiscing further, "Sorry, I'm getting off topic... anyway, she told us a story that I guess I didn't pay much attention to at the time, but in the lead up to tonight, it... just came back to me."

Makamimon cocked an eyebrow at her, not that she saw, as she was still ahead of him. He padded up to walk alongside her again, sensing something interesting was coming.

Gytramon tilted her head up, and stared at the night sky. The vast expanse of stars, the bright neon cloud-like nebulas reflected in her eyes. In her mind's eye, as she began to recount the story, she could still remember being in her smaller in-training form, having pushed her way to the front of the group to sit directly at Monochromon's front feet, the dinosaur-like gentle-giant's voice like that of a grandmother setting the mood for the eager little ones sat around her.

"She said that she swears it's true, even though she never saw it herself, but... humans came here, once. She said they had miraculous powers, and digimon travelled from all over the world to see them."

Makamimon, who had also looked up to view the night sky, tore his gaze from the sky and stared at her. She showed no change, still absorbed in the stars.

A streak of gold far up above them blazed past, the first shooting star they'd ever seen.

"She doesn't remember how many came, but they were small ones. Human children, she said. They befriended the digimon of 'back then' and brought about wondrous change. Change that couldn't be done without them, she said."

Makamimon stared ahead, down the dirt road, that seemed to stretch on and on through farmlands that seemed to go on for forever.

"So, I was thinking... if it's possible... if it's possible to meet humans... would that be what we need, to see change?"

Straight on, down that dusty path that seemed to go right off into the sky over the horizon.

Could humans be out there, somewhere, if they walked long enough, far enough?

The wolf shook his head and let out a snort of disbelief that had her lower her head and glance at him out the corner of her eyes.

"Pfft... I'm sorry. Monochromon was old, and her memory wasn't the best. She probably made it up as a fairytale, or something. I mean... humans? Here?"

"There must be a grain of truth to it whether you want to believe it or not," she spat, her mood soured by his reaction, "Why else would the Church be so dead-set on making us pray to the Holy Maiden about them? The long as hell sermons going on about their evils, and how we must learn to avoid the mistakes humans make? The Church is fixated on them. So that, to me, proves that something must have happened once-upon-a-time for this fixation to have come about."

Makamimon was taken aback by her change in mood, but when he took on board what she said, and really gave thought to it, he had to admit she had a point.

"Alright. I'll try to keep an open mind going forward..." he replied, hanging his head apologetically.

"As I said before, we'll find out the truth for ourselves once we get out of Paradise."

* * *

Once they reached the meat farm, they'd grabbed some harvesting sacks and stuffed them with what they could carry, along with flasks of water from one of the many wells dotted about the farmlands.

After that, they'd set off, this time in silence. No conversation was made, no joking around from Gytramon, and no grumbling from Makamimon.

Being as late as it was, this lack of talk was down to the two being tired; this was by far the most challenging aspect so far, as it was difficult to fight against the oncoming exhaustion, as falling asleep would cut into time needed to escape Paradise and gain a bigger gap between themselves and their inevitable pursuers.

"Must be on cliffs," said Gytramon, after what felt like hours of silence.

Makamimon looked up, his eyelids heavy. Ahead of them, the ground seemed to just cut off.

"We must be very, very high up," he replied, unable to stifle the yawn that escaped him.

The ground ahead of them came to an abrupt stop, and seemed to lead off into the night sky itself. There were no visible trees, mountains or ocean that could be seen, at least not from this point.

"This sucks..." Gytramon muttered under her breath, her first complaint of the entire trip, "No, this is actually pretty bad. Depending on how high up we are, it could take ages making a descent, and if it's too steep, we'll have to really hunt out a more viable way down because this is really going to cut into our time-"

Makamimon stumbled into her, where he'd been dozing off without realizing. After failing to stifle another yawn, he gave her a weak nudge.

"Why'd you stop?" He asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily. When he went to nudge her again, he felt her body had tensed so hard he'd be mistaken for thinking her muscles had turned to stone.

Her expression was one of sheer horror. Wide-eyed, dilated pupils, her mouth opening and closing as she struggled and failed to find the words to express herself.

Following her gaze, he walked on ahead, expecting to see this 'something' that had so shocked her.

Nothing.

He saw, quite literally, nothing.

They were not on a cliff, as they had expected. They were on the very edge of the world itself.

Over the crumbling edge of the rocky lip, was a sheer drop into a pitch black void.

Even the 'sky' itself had changed. There was a grid pattern across it, from the very top of the sky, to the very 'bottom' of the abyss, where there was nothing beneath them. Like being on the inside of a wireframe sphere.

Strange shapes were in the sky, as were a band of light, like saturn's rings, circling the outside of the wireframe sphere - no, 'globe' - with images and strange texts that were too hard to make out, in and out of existence in a blur.

There was nothing outside of Paradise.

Their reality was an island containing Paradise, and Paradise alone, floating within a void.

And now, Paradise was beginning to rapidly look a lot like Hell.

"No... no, no, no, no, no..." Makamimon repeated, shaking his head. He rubbed his eyes over and over, but no matter how hard he rubbed, each time he opened them, the view stayed exactly the same.

Gytramon was still frozen in place behind him, and whilst she had regained some composure, her eyes were still wide, and pupils still dilated. The gears in her head were working overtime, trying to process whatever this terrible reality was before them.

"This... this can't be right..." She murmured, taking deep breaths as Makamimon continued to quietly freak out in his own way off to the side, "Monochromon, in her stories, the world..."

"She LIED!" Makamimon suddenly screamed, spraying her with specks of foamy saliva. His claws raked into the earth violently, as if trying to ground himself, "She LIED! SHE LIED! SHE LIED!"

Gytramon stared him down, her nostrils flaring, and her breaths grew deeper and more rapid.

"There's no humans! There's NOTHING! Nobody to save us! Nothing will change! NOTHING WILL CHANGE! We'll get captured, and then who knows what they'll do to us!" He snarled, ears pinned back flat against his skull, "Life in this HELL will continue on, and on, and on, unchanged, forever! We failed, it's hopeless! She lied, and now you've doomed us-"

Before she could stop herself, Gytramon pivoted on her forelegs, swinging around with such speed that her rear hooves sent Makamimon flying across the dirt until he came skidding to a halt.

He lay there, still, panting heavily. Her own breaths came out ragged and rough, as her mind seemed to switch onto autopilot. She felt like she was walking on air as she approached him, and set herself down against him.

When his panting began to turn into quiet sobs, only then did some feeling seem to seep back into her hollow heart.

She slid her forelegs under his head to support it, and rested her head against his, gently nuzzling it into his shoulder.

This was definitely a change, and not one they had been wanting, let alone ever expecting.

Gytramon allowed Makamimon to pour out his frustration, misery and fear. In any other time, she would have yelled at him to snap out of it- but in this situation, what could she do?

The only thing she could do right now, for the both of them, was to close herself off, harden herself like steel, and force herself to be strong, or the burdens she'd placed on them both for the sake of all their friends back at the cabin would crush her.

Time seemed to pass differently on the edge of the world, as it felt like the two lay there for days, trying to make sense of things and come to terms with the harsh truth.

As Gytramon thought it over and over, her mind kept coming back to one place.

"The Church. They must know about this, surely," her voice came out as a flat monotone, a machine lacking emotion, but one that felt certain, "There's no way. No way they can't know about this."

"What do we do...?" Makamimon croaked, his own voice hoarse and weak. His eyes were still watery, and she appeared blurry in his vision, her expression unreadable.

"I'm going back. I want answers. I want the truth."

Shifting her forelegs out from under him, she hoisted her bag back over her back, and began to walk off.

"No..." Makamimon rasped, hurriedly wiping his eyes and getting up on his feet to stagger after her, his outburst and her sobering kick having sapped all the strength from him, "They'll... take you away..."

"Let them," she replied despondently, feeling herself become more and more cold with each step, "I can't live with this. If they take me away, I'll accept it, if it means I can learn why this horrid place is the way it is."

"Then I'm going to go with you... I don't think I can live, after seeing... back there... without knowing what's going on, either..."

This was not a show of resolution. This was two small, powerless beings who had just realized how helpless they really were. The two were straddling a fine line between denial and painful acceptance as they began to retrace their steps back.

Each passing minute brought fresh torture as they struggled with numerous thoughts plaguing them.

The strong possibility that there was no escape, that even if there was, there was nowhere to escape to, that even if they were spared from whatever fate awaited them going back they would have to live with this knowledge and resume the nightmare lifestyle they had been forced into since birth.

At least their friends at home had the luxury of being able to live in blissful ignorance and never be tortured with what they knew now.

By time they had reached the vast fields of the farmlands, Makamimon was barely able to keep standing, and Gytramon's front paws had begun to form blisters.

"I need to rest," he asked, and before he could wait for her response, he collapsed onto the ground, panting and heaving.

"We don't have time," she stated, turning her steely gaze from ahead, where her eyes had been fixed on the horizon, waiting for the church to come into view, "The sun will rise soon if we don't hurry back now."

"I can't, I..."

Makamimon stared past her, off to the left. Gytramon noticed this, and followed his gaze.

There was something shining in the distance, like a heat haze on a summer day. It seemed to glimmer and dance like a flame, and despite being so far away it hurt to look at.

"What... is that?" Gytramon asked, turning to look back at Makamimon in confusion.

In the seconds it took for Makamimon and Gytramon to look to each other and turn back, the shimmering thing in the fields had moved ten meters towards them.

Despite his pain, Makamimon leapt to his feet, Gytramon backing off until she was near pressed shoulder to shoulder beside him.

When they blinked, it had gotten much closer, and grown much bigger and brighter. It was a figure. And it was clearly coming for them.

Dropping their bags to the ground, both digimon tripped over each other as they turned tail and began to gallop at full pelt away from the shining figure that was hot on their heels.

Makamimon yelped as his sore paws were cut mercilessly on the rocks underfoot as they ran, Gytramon leaving flecks of blood in her wake as her blood blisters met a similar fate.

The only road open to them was back towards the edge of the void, but that thought was far from their minds as the current threat took priority.

"It just goes from bad to worse! What the hell's with this miserable place!" Gytramon screamed, in a mix of despair and fury. With all her might, she fought the temptation to turn back, and by some miracle, was able to headbutt Makamimon to gee him up any time he began to give in to the same temptation.

The only sounds Makamimon made were yelps of pain and whining from fear.

They left the end of the fields, and were now onto the flat open land that gave way to the dry, cracked ground lining the edge of the world. At the last minute, the two came to a grinding halt, Makamimon nearly bumping Gytramon clean over into the void below as they ran out of area to run to.

Behind them, the figure was just a stone's throw away.

The light, which seemed to be coming from multiple sets of wings, began to dim, allowing them to make out more of the figure. It was a digimon after all, and one resembling an angel. It wore a blindfold, and had hair that shone like gold. Aside from their hands, everything else was covered up by their wings and a robe.

"Well, well. Two stray lambs, sinners who have broken the laws of the Holy Maiden."

"Who the hell are you, and what the hell IS this?" Gytramon snapped, shoving past Makamimon and taking a fighting stance. Whoever this was, they seemed like they were far more important than anyone at the Church.

Makamimon's ears pinned back submissively, and he felt himself recoil from the terrifying aura. Whatever stage this digimon was at, it far surpassed the Champions back in the village.

"Sinners like you have no right to ask questions, and you certainly don't deserve answers after the rules you have broken," the figure announced, dismissing Gytramon's concerns entirely.

Gytramon scraped her paws across the floor as she readied herself to charge, "If you won't tell me what's going on, then I'll have to make you."

Before Makamimon could stop her, Gytramon dashed towards the angel digimon, baring her fangs as her body was wrapped with black flames.

"Shade Strike!"

The Angel digimon opened out its hand, a glowing semi-translucent shield of gold appearing in front of it. Gytramon couldn't stop herself in time, and she collided, ramming her body against it. The shield rippled like liquid, before lightning erupted from it, electrocuting Gytramon mercilessly.

Her smouldering body was then violently propelled backwards, where she went crashing right into Makamimon- as if the angel had aimed her and used her own brutalized body as a weapon against him.

Makamimon screamed as he managed to wrench himself out from under her, just in time to see her body covered in scorch marks. Purple particles floated up dangerously from burn wounds, a sign so obvious that even Makamimon, who had never seen a digimon die before, knew on an instinctive level that Gytramon had taken a severe shock to her system.

"Please!" Makamimon begged, covering her still burning-hot body with his own, his entire frame trembling from sheer hopelessness, "Please, don't kill us... We didn't mean to... We just wanted..."

"I care not for your 'wants'," the angel declared, the shield disappearing as quickly as it had come. "You can pay your penance and rot where you truly belong... if Paradise is truly Hell to you, then I will send you to a place that truly encapsulates that name."

Golden bars began to form around the two small digimon, Makamimon looking about wildly as they began to grow and take shape in the form of an unbreakable cage. Now trapped, the cage began to rise up into the air, until they were both level with the angel's blindfolded face.

"This isn't fair! You can't do this to us! You can't do this to all the digimon back at the village!" Makamimon yelled, throwing himself against the bars in desperation, as the angel coldly looked on.

A small smile formed on the Angel's face, as though enjoying seeing the little wolf struggle pathetically in imprisonment.

"Sinners reap what they sow. And now, you will perish in a far worse place, never even getting the answers you so seek."

"You won't get away with this!" Makamimon snarled. Something in him had snapped, and it was as though he had taken on Gytramon's anger and given it form. Even in the cramped, oppressive cage, he still stood over her protectively.

"Die."

And after the one, single response from the angel that sounded out as an order, the surroundings began to glow brightly, until everything around them was swallowed whole in blinding white light.


	2. Prologue 2 - Geoload

"...Tra...mon..."

Even the gentlest of movements as she shifted uncomfortably sent pain coursing through her aching body.

"Gy... mon..."

Something nudged her, and she grunted irritably, her mind still stuck somewhere between sleep and awakening.

"Gytramon!"

Her eyes snapped open, now she was forcefully torn out of her incapacitated state.

As she tried to sit up, she grit her teeth as another electric surge of pain shot through her, and had her front legs buckle from the shock.

Looking up, she could make out a blurry blue blob standing over her. It took only a moment for it all to come rushing back to her, and she realized the blurry figure was that of Makamimon.

"Makamimon... ugh... what happened? I feel like hot garbage right now."

"I'm just glad you're _alive_!" he told her, carefully helping to prop her up into a sitting position. But the look of relief on his face faded, replaced with a frown, as he broke it to her; "But I'm afraid this may be the only good news for us right now..."

Gytramon gently rubbed at her eyes to wipe away the wetness making her vision blur, as she took stock of their surroundings.

They were situated under an overhanging cliff, behind stalagmites lining the ground under the lip, offering some cover from the outside. The land beyond their cover, however, was a far cry from Paradise's lush countryside greenery.

A craggy wasteland, pockmarked with deep craters like the surface of the moon. Flat-topped buttes lined the horizon, with a solitary grey mountain off to the east.

Empty, dry riverbeds off the the west gave the appearance of a great scar on the land.

There were vast swathes of ground that had sizeable patches of what looked like static eating away at the barren landscape, sending up clouds of data particles into the grid covered sky.

The trees of the digital world, whilst some had roots as one could find in the human world, many others simply ended in plugs, and would be found plugged into sockets in the ground. Such trees often had bulb-fruits that would be lit up and be an especially fine sight at night time. All of the trees here were of the plug variety, and all had been ripped from their plugs. Some had been smashed apart, exposing the wiring that 'grew' inside of such trees and fed power to the bulb-fruits.

Like a scene from right out of an apocalypse.

It was as empty and devoid of life as the village had been when they'd passed through earlier, but here, the pair got the distinct feel it wasn't because any inhabitants were off elsewhere holding a meeting. It looked like there hadn't been anyone here for a long time.

"Where are we?" Gytramon asked, bracing herself as she unsteadily rose to her feet.

"Your guess is as good as mine..." Makamimon replied, allowing her to lean on him for support, "I feel like I got knocked out, too... the last thing I remember after the white light, we were falling out of the sky. The cage absorbed the impact, and then broke open. I saw the cliffs, and this hollowed-out spot underneath, and carried you on my back. I can't judge time in this place because of the sky, but it feels like we've been here about two hours, give or take."

Gytramon approached the stalagmite perimeter and peered out from between them at that foreign landscape.

"I'm running on empty. We dropped the food sacks back at the fields, and I don't see any rivers..." She said, licking around her dry mouth, "I guess we'd better get out there and get on filling ourselves up, or we won't last much longer."

"I'm not too bad," Makamimon began, before a loud gurgling sound rumbled from his stomach, "Oof. Guess I'm worse off than I thought."

"Plan of action, then. We go out, locate a water source. Drink our fill, and then scavenge up anything edible and bring it back here. Then we stuff our faces and sleep as long as we need until we're recovered." Gytramon stated, outlining their current goals concisely.

Makamimon's lingering tension began to alleviate further on seeing the spark steadily return to her, though there was still something he was worried about.

"Listen... don't overdo it, Gytramon. Your body took quite a beating from that strange digimon, and I don't think you're out of the woods yet..." He warned, as she still had wounds that hadn't healed and were still giving off particles, "Whilst this place seems devoid of life, if we run into anyone hostile, I don't think you'll last much longer. Let's not stray too far from this place... please?"

"You're a worrywart, but if it'll help you sleep better tonight, I'll agree to it."

"Thank you."

And so, the two prepped themselves up, and took their first steps out into this crater-marked, glitchy terrain.

They would pick out any place that seemed like good enough cover, and briskly head for it. There was no telling what they might find here, despite the initial emptiness they had been met with.

Whilst Gytramon's confidence hadn't taken as big a knock as she had, she was starting to grow irritable. Every so often, she'd stop and look back, and see Makamimon standing stock still, looking behind him, his ears standing straight up. Even when he snapped out of it and resumed walking, she saw his ears constantly swivelling about at so much as even the distant sound of loose stones rolling down steep inclines over the gravelly ground, or the occasional moment a passing breeze lightly rustling the thinnest branches of the dead trees.

By the fifth time he'd done this, she'd grown unnerved enough to lose her patience with him and speak up in regards to his odd behaviour.

"What's with you, seriously? I get that this place is 'spooky' and all, but you're being paranoid. There's _no-one here_."

"Well, we don't know that for sure, but..."

"But?"

Makamimon licked his parched lips nervously, "I just... have a bad feeling."

Gytramon raised an eyebrow at him and tilted her head slightly, "define 'bad feeling'."

"Well, it's... how to put this... I feel like, well... like we're being..."

Just as Makamimon was about to explain his bad feeling for Gytramon, there came an undefinable but distinctly mechanical, anxiety-inducing sound somewhere behind them.

Having stopped in their tracks completely, the two turned in what must have felt like an agonizingly slow manner, to face the source of that heart-stopping sound.

Floating above the cliffs they had been under since their unhappy arrival here, was what looked like a mass of black and white striped metallic tentacles, with a silver disk at the front set with a bright red orb. The orb gave off a fiery orange-red glow like magma, and they realized with a sinking sense of horror, that this was the being's eye- like the lense of a camera.

Meaning it could see.

And above this was a flat silver cylinder with another lense, this one beaming out bright white light...

Like a searchlight, even.

"...Watched." Makamimon managed to finally whimper out.

When the beam swept up the trail and landed on them, they barely had time to register how much danger they would now find themselves in, when the floating mass of tentacles began to howl, the sound uncannily like a warning siren.

The volume, and the light, startled both digimon had them sprint off away from it.

When Makamimon cast a panicked look back, seeing the machine violently propel itself off the top of the cliffs after them, he almost lost his footing.

"It's coming after us!" he yelled to Gytramon, whose wounds were now reopened and aggravated by the intensity of her flight. Each movement sent fresh waves of agony through her, and sent clouds of particles billowing up after her with every footfall.

"But of course it is, it definitely isn't wailing and blinding us for its own amusement!"

Gytramon's mind was racing, her gaze jumping from landmark to landmark.

There were the buttes, but none had any overhangs or openings to duck into. There were no caves or nesting holes one might find in populated areas that digimon on the road would use as temporary shelters.

There was nowhere to hide, but... there was a formation ahead, an arch formed out of rocks, and past it, a dry river bed.

"Quickly, take a hard right! Head for the land arch, we're going through it- then head straight for the empty river!"

"R-Right!" Makamimon yelped after her, as the search light beam began to expand and glow brighter. The unsettling siren was growing louder.

Gytramon was so near hyper focused on the clump of unplugged trees forming something of a natural bridge over the empty river bed she almost missed the flashes of light to the left and right of their route- more of those things had appeared in the distance, and they were fast approaching the one pursuing them, thanks to the reach of the siren echoing out over the wastes.

"Hurry!"

The two passed under the arch, the deep shadow cast by the natural formation covering them in darkness. Whilst the arch was big enough to permit them, the machine hunting them down would not be able to fit through without difficulty.

An earth-shatteringly heavy crash roared out behind them, and they barely managed to avoid larger rocks loosened by the machine's impact with the arch crushing them from above. The ground shook and heaved as the machine rammed against the arch repeatedly, several tentacles stretching and extending after them, with many more wrapping around the sides of the arch itself.

Gytramon and Makamimon both fought back screams, as adrenaline alone powered them forward. They went flying over the edge of the empty river, and went sliding down the sloping silt onto the dry, cracked river bed.

Panting, the two scrambled under the fallen tree cluster, pressing up against the bank in the darkest part of the shadows. Branches managed to obscure them just enough that they could be considered hidden; this was their sole hope in regards to a hiding place, and they were placing all their hopes on it, now.

Behind them came an explosion that boomed across the wastes, leaving their ears ringing. In the following moment, an earthquake ripped across the ground, sending stones and rocks tumbling down the dry banks and into the parched gully, clouds of dust and sand from the fallen trees overhead having been sifted down through small gaps.

After trying to conceal their coughing and spluttering, the ringing in their ears passed.

The wailing had stopped. Just as Gytramon was about to peer outside, the gully was flooded with light, deepening the shadows of the tree-bridge to pitch black.

The three machines were now gathered over the river bed, the vast beams that spelled doom for anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in them swept over the bridge. Shafts of light spilled down through the thin gaps that had formed during the earthquake.

Both Gytramon and Makamimon held their breath. The little wolf could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears so loudly, it nearly completely drowned out the hum from the machines above.

It felt as though they had been down there for days, when almost as suddenly as it had happened, it was over. The searchlights went dark, and the humming lessened.

Gytramon took a risk and peered through gaps in the branches just enough to confirm that the machines were leaving, all three separating and going off in different directions.

"I think it's over." She told him, on crawling back to Makamimon's side. "They've gone. I don't know what those things are, but I'm not confident we'll be able to escape them again if we get spotted again."

Makamimon was taking slow, deep breaths, having been on the verge of a full blown panic attack, the second time this night. Or third. Or fourth. By this point, he'd stopped keeping count.

"What now?" he asked, after calming down more, though staying calm in a place like this was going to be a challenge in and of itself.

"Guess this is our house, now," Gytramon sighed, kicking back and crossing one leg over the other, her arms folded behind her head.

"You've got to be joking! We can't stay here!" He protested, looking at her incredulously, "How can you joke at a time like this?! We almost died!"

"I can joke, because the alternative is to just lay down and cry until we die from despair, or something," she replied, watching dust motes swirl through the light shafts, "Besides, we survived, and we're still alive. That's something to stay optimistic for."

"I wish I had your... whatever it is you have, that lets you completely disregard and ignore danger and, hell, reality." He quipped, as he took a few tentative steps towards the light and took his turn to peer out between the branches, "We've only been here a few hours, and I'm already done with this place."

"You know, even with everything we've been through already, I still prefer this turn of events over the alternative back in Paradise," She replied, snapping a twig off from one of the branches and twiddling it between her claws, "And before you tell me, I know, that's crazy talk. Don't care though, because it's how I feel."

Makamimon shook his head at her and was about to pull himself back in, when his eyes caught sight of something further up the river bed, "Hey, I think I see something."

"See what?" she asked, rolling onto her side in order to join him in looking out, too.

"Footprints!"

The two looked at each other, her face a picture of curiosity and excitement, and his, a mix of apprehension and concern.

"I gotta check this out. And you, too, come on!"

Gytramon got up and shook herself to free herself of the dirt and sand that had coated her from the earlier earthquake, with Makamimon following suit. She bit his ear and tugged him out from under the wood bridge, where either stubbornness or nerves had rooted him to the spot.

"Listen, it could be like, a friend. Someone to show us around this crazy place. They might have food and shelter!" She explained, trotting on ahead with a new spring in her step, such that her wounds no longer seemed to bother her.

"Or it could be an axe-wielding maniac who'll lure us into their basement and murder us in cold blood," Makamimon muttered darky, gloomily beginning to list off ways this potential hope spot could lead to their demise, "Or they'll have food and it'll be poisoned. Or it'll be wearing a suit, and it takes the suit off, and it'll be one of those things again. Anything is bloody possible in this hell-hole!"

"Hush, puppy, and lighten up. Let's view this as a good thing. Maybe our luck'll finally change and be on the up'n up!" Gytramon grinned, her trot having turned into a jovial little canter. Someone's mood had definitely improved, Makamimon thought, and it hadn't been his own.

* * *

The footprints had been oval shaped, with no pads or claw marks. Nothing to indicate what sort of digimon, if it even was a digimon, had made them.

Once identifying it via print was out of the window, Makamimon's canine nose, with it's higher sense of smell, had at least provided a hint.

"Smells... fishy. Kind of salty, too, like the sea," He commented, wrinkling his nose up from how strong it was, "And look here, there's like some slimy residue left. Definitely has to be an aquatic digimon."

"An aquatic digimon? Here, really?" Gytramon asked, shaking her head in disbelief, "That's a surprise. Unless, like those tentacle jellyfish things from earlier, the fish around here just upped and grew legs and left when the river ran dry."

"Somehow, I doubt that, but whatever. We've found a clue to what kind of digimon made these prints, but more importantly, I've picked up a scent trail. Come on!"

When they climbed out of the river bed, Gytramon cast a quick glance around to make sure none of their unwelcome company was around, before her eyes landed on the mountain of shattered rocks and rubble where the arch had been.

"Hoooly smokes," she breathed, whistling with a mix of awe and dread, "Yeah, we definitely can't afford to run into any more of those things."

Makamimon dared not look back at the ruins of the former rock arch, as the sight alone would've emptied whatever he had left inside him from the onset of horror.

He quickly got to work and relocated the source of the scent trail, sighting some more footprints in the distant on sand-covered ground.

As they headed off, something that had been nagging at Gytramon had her throw out a question to her travelling partner.

"Wait... how'd you know the sea smells salty? Paradise was never near the ocean, and neither of us has seen one. I doubt anyone back there has."

Makamimon paused briefly to scratch one of his ears with his foot, because there was no real answer he could give.

"I don't know? I kind of... just do. I just know that the sea is salty, how it smells. When I picked up this scent trail, the sea just instantly came to mind... almost like I could see it?"

"Huh," Gytramon tilted her head at him, then shook it. There was a lot of strange, unexplained stuff going on and she wondered if they'd ever find any explanation for any of the things that had been puzzling them all day. "You mentioned a bunch of stuff earlier about axe psychos and poisoned food and murder basements. Almost like... ugh... I feel like I know what those things are, too, what the heck."

"It's hard to describe, but it's like... I know what those things are, even though I know I've never seen them before." Makamimon mused, mostly to himself than Gytramon.

"Makes me think of Monochromon, in a way. She doesn't remember seeing them herself, but she knew about humans, and that they've been here." Gytramon replied. Makamimon shot her a look.

"This again?"

"What about keeping an open mind?" She asked, pulling back a little to nudge him with her nose, which had him snort and look away.

"I know, I know. I just... need more time to accept the idea of it."

"The strange happenings just keep piling up, either way. Wish we had some answers _soon_ ," she sighed, kicking a pebble ahead of her as they continued walking, "I don't know what'll kill me first, the suspense from all these totally exciting mysteries, or the mechanical tentacle monstrosities. Or starvation."

"Please don't mention starvation," Makamimon begged, hanging his head miserably, "I'd only just got my mind off my aching stomach, and now I can feel the hunger pains starting up again..."

They continued following the trail, falling back into silence just in case any more trouble came up. They were fortunate so far that they had reached an area that afforded more cover.

Up ahead, they found a grove of dead trees, and multiple stone stacks.

"These look a lot like cairns," Makamimon stated, walking up to one. The scent trail was a lot more pungent in this area, and the strange rock stacks had definitely piqued his interest.

"I think this might be a grave," Gytramon's voice came, from around the other side of it, "I found something here that looks like an offering of some kind?"

Makamimon padded around, and saw what Gytramon had found; it was a holy ring off of a digimon.

"Oh... that looks like a Plotmon's collar," Makamimon said sadly, stepping back and bowing his head. Gytramon bowed hers in turn, and both quietly paid their respects.

"I wonder if our Plotmon, and all our other friends back home, are alright?" Gytramon said, after the two resumed following the scent trail.

"I sure hope so. At the very least, they're probably having a better time than we are..." Makamimon sighed, "I bet they're eating nice, hot meats from the meat farm... fresh and crunchy stamina-corn, right off the cob... freshly picked bitberries baked into a loaf, right out of the oven..."

He was so lost in daydreams of sitting at a banqueting table surrounded by their friends from the rookie house back in Paradise, that he didn't see Gytramon's paw coming until it caught him between the ears. She glared at him as he yelped and rubbed at the sore spot.

"Do NOT go on about food any more, or I'll have to resort to eating _you_."

"Alright, alright! I won't say another word!"

Past the grove, the area began to open out to reveal more cairns. The wind had picked up and had kicked up swirling clouds of sand and dust, so thick that it made it nearly impossible to see ahead.

"Oh man, it just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?" Gytramon muttered sarcastically, rubbing at her stinging eyes. She could just about make out Makamimon in front of her, and saw that he was pretty much stuck doing the same.

"We're going to have to stick together like glue in this. I've still got a scent trail, so we're good on that front."

That was the one saving grace in this mess, at least.

And so, Makamimon lead the way through the dust storm, with Gytramon gently holding the end of his tail in her mouth to avoid the risk of getting seperated.

Occasionally, they could barely make out things through the dirty grey clouds. Cliff faces, gnarly trees. A giant skull, that would have looked more majestic in full display, if not for the curtain of swirling sands obscuring it.

But one thing that caught their attention eventually appeared dead ahead of them, in the direction the scent trail was leading.

High up in the sky was a blinking red light. It sometimes flickered, but for the most part, it kept to a steady rhythm. As they got closer, they saw more lights; flickering static, and swirling portals of blue light and glitched particles.

A skyscraper, tilting right from the steady pull of gravity. The light at the top was an aircraft warning light they had been following. The other, glitchy blue lights were random windows up and down the entire structure.

At the foot of the building stood a digimon, pale and covered with dirt, holding a sack. It was wearing a costume that ended in a fish-like tail. On either side of its head were fin-like ears.

At first, both of them were too dumbfounded by the sight of the huge building with the glitched windows, and having found the digimon they had been tracking, to move. Makamimon had forgotten to breathe and tripped over his own legs when Gytramon found her voice and stepped forward.

"Yo!"

The fish-costume digimon looked up and turned, but the dust storm still made it difficult to see their expression clearly.

Before anything else could happen, the sky turned a deep blood red. Glowing text shone high above them in the atmosphere, an angry, burning crimson. The text read; "SYSTEM".

A flat, monotone, artificial voice echoed out over the entire land, seemingly coming from everywhere.

[ _PREPARING GEO_LOAD_ ]

"You, horsedog, wolfmutt, come!" the strange digimon before them yelled, waving them over, "Hurry, or it too late!"

[ _CLEARING SECTOR OF AI_ ]

All at once, it felt like there were a million wailing sirens. Bursts of white light appeared in the blood-coloured wireframe sky, like the birth of thousands of stars.

Stars that, as they grew nearer, looked to have tentacles.

"OH _HELL_ NO!" Gytramon yelled, before she headbutted Makamimon from the rear to force him forward, "WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THESE THINGS, NOT NOW, NOT WITH SPOOKY SKY TEXT."

As the area was flooded with search lights fixed on the three digimon, Gytramon and Makamimon joined up with the stranger, who pulled them forward. The stranger hauled them all into the tilted skyscraper, through one of the windows, which they then slammed shut behind them.

Immediately it was like they may as well have vanished into thin air to the swarm of cyclopean red-eyed tentacle machines outside.

The cluster of alien beings spread out, and began to comb through the area, their tentacles clumsily reaching out to touch at things.

When one of them knocked over a cairn, the digimon that had rescued them glared bitterly.

Makamimon's whining and whimpering had the digimon, and Gytramon, tear their gaze away from the window to look at him.

"Tell the mutt to calm down."

She had a vaguely feminine voice, but it was husky sounding and rough. Gytramon, who had been oddly calm since getting in, only seemed to just realize she was being spoken to.

"Huh?"

Makamimon was shaking so hard, he was having trouble staying on his feet.

"Stay calm?! STAY CALM?!" He snapped, pointing his paw at the windows, "We're under siege! Do you not see the _hundreds of tentacle things out there_?! How can ANYONE stay calm in a situation like this?!"

"He's got a point," Gytramon shrugged; the madness of outside, the text and robot voice, and the strange building had just left her devoid of any fucks to give.

"It's fine. As long as mutt or doghorse don't open windows or door, we're safe."

Makamimon was about to open his mouth to protest, or freak out, or perhaps just scream, before Gytramon had crossed the room - an empty lobby area - to push her front paw down onto his mouth to pre-emptively silence him.

"We'll take your word on it. You look like you've got experience with these things?" Gytramon inquired, "Anyway, got time for introductions, stranger? I'm Gytramon, and this wuss is Makamimon. You'll have to forgive him, he's not had anything to eat for several hours now."

"Jinnymon doesn't care for introductions or niceties." The strange fish-like digimon - presumably the aforementioned Jinnymon - replied, looking away from them dismissively, "And that's the mutts problem. Not hard to find food if you know where to look."

"Jinnymon, is it? Well, nice to meet you. The pleasure's all ours." Gytramon smiled, her voice as sweet and smooth as honey, as she did her best to appeal to Jinnymon's better side... if there even was one. "You mentioned food?"

"Aye." Jinnymon patted the sack she'd been carrying, and was now guarding jealously like a banker guarding a vault full of gold, "Fish and veggies. Jinnymon's stew."

"Oh boy!" Makamimon perked up, picking himself up off the floor where he'd lain since having his snout shoved down into it by Gytramon.

"Never said I was cooking for either of you, mutt." Jinnymon sneered, watching the elation quickly deflate from his face.

"Oh boy." He muttered, his voice flat and monotone.

Gytramon could sense that Jinnymon was the type who was loathe for company and likely preferred to live alone. Their arrival here probably annoyed her greatly, and the last thing Gytramon wanted was to piss off what could be their only ally here; a valuable one, who had one hell of a fortress, and knew the lay of the land enough to know where food could be found.

She'd need to be treated delicately... something neither Gytramon nor especially Makamimon were good at.

"So, is there anyone else living here?" Gytramon asked, doing her best to be charming and approachable, but keeping a respectable distance away from their host.

"No," was the only response she got, as the strange fish-costumed digimon hauled her sack over to what appeared to be a storage area near to a non-functional elevator door.

"Ever heard of Paradise? To cut a long story short, we lived in another place, but after an unfortunate run-in, we wound up here..." she explained, before quickly adding, "Oh, I don't suppose you know where 'here' is, do you?"

"Paradise, eh? Jinnymon not heard that name in at least a year." She paused to pull out a few well-worn cooking utensils out of a flat-topped wooden box; a worn-out looking pot, a heavily stained wooden spoon, and a knife in need of sharpening. After setting everything out using the box as a counter, she continued, "This the Dumping Grounds. Where digimon not needed, or those that break the laws, are sent. It's a prison island. But since no-one but Jinnymon survive long enough here, it Jinnymon's island."

"Survive... so those cairns out there, were they...?"

"Aye. Graves. Easy come, easy go, here." Jinnymon replied casually, as though talking about death didn't bother her, "Nothing permanent here. Not the landscape. Not the food. Not the layout. Not any structures. Only thing permanent here is death."

Gytramon had suspected that digimon rebirth was impossible here on seeing how empty and lifeless it had been, on top of the cairns. It was still a shock to hear actual confirmation, but a bigger surprise in regards to the other things Jinnymon had described.

"Nothing permanent... what do you mean by that?"

"You'll see soon enough." She replied cryptically, as she dumped all of the chopped up vegetables and fish into the pot. Producing a flask of water from the sack, she poured a fair amount until the contents were covered, and sprinkled some flour in to thicken it.

"So, uh... how long have you lived here?" Makamimon asked, deciding to fight off his unease and join the conversation. He completely missed the look Gytramon had shot him to stay quiet.

They watched her go towards a firepit she'd made in a section of the floor where the lobby's tiles had been destroyed and removed, leaving dirt underneath. She hooked the pot up over the fire pit, and then grabbed a few small logs from a pile beside her, before setting it alight and bathing the entire room in an inviting warm glow.

"Hmm... Jinnymon has lived here forrr..."

Pausing from stirring her pot, Jinnymon held up her costumed hands, that only had three claws attached. After counting those, she looked down at her feet, the costume having neither claws or toes. And as they completely concealed her own feet, it was impossible to tell whether she herself had toes or not.

"...A long time."

Gytramon cricked her neck and stretched out a little, her wounds starting to bother her again.

"Those things that tried to hunt us down and, presumably, kill us all..."

"Patrollers. They fly about looking for digimon, then they eviscerate them."

Makamimon gulped audibly off to the side, Gytramon herself even feeling uneasy. The way Jinnymon had come out with that made it clear she'd witnessed them deal with their 'prey' personally.

"So long as you stay inside a structure, Patrollers and the Geoload can't kill you."

Makamimon's ears pricked at the mention of the Geoload.

"Geoload... that voice from the sky mentioned that, what IS it?"

"You'll find out in due time." Jinnymon replied, as she pulled out a bowl and a slightly bent up spoon. "Enough questions; Jinnymon bored, and going to feed."

Whilst Gytramon did her best not to stare, Makamimon couldn't keep his eyes off the bowl of stew, and Jinnymon.

For the briefest of moments, Jinnymon's expression seemed to weaken, before she hardened herself and returned to scowling.

"Gah! Fine! Jinnymon hate staring! Mutt and horsedog can have stew too, Jinnymon supposes." She spat bitterly, serving up two additional portions in some extra bowls from the box, "Rejoice, mutt, your pathetic puppy-dog eyes won this time, but it won't work on Jinnymon again."

Gytramon could have kissed Makamimon, as his 'puppy-dog eyes', which were a source of aggravation for her normally, had scored them a much needed meal. On seeing strings of saliva drooling down from his jaws, however, she quickly retracted back on the idea of kissing him.

The three sat around the firepit with their bowls of vegetable and fish stew. Taking simultaneous sips, the three let out contented sighs together; a reward after the hellish night (or perhaps day, now) they had been through.

Gytramon in particular felt her body tingle all over, suddenly revitalized. When she looked at her wounds, she was stunned to see them rapidly close up, until it looked as though the run in with the angel had never happened. Makamimon had noticed, too.

"You're lucky you came to Jinnymon when you did, horsedog." Jinnymon said around a mouth full of vegetables, "Jinnymon can imbue most edible foods and drinks with a restorative effect."

"That is very lucky indeed." Gytramon agreed, still marvelling over her miraculous recovery. "I really do owe you one for this."

Jinnymon considered if it would be useful to keep Gytramon in her debt for the foreseeable future, but Makamimon's voice broke her out of her thoughts.

"This is nice; what did you say was in this again?" Makamimon asked their host, his tail thumping softly against the tiles behind him.

"Fish head stew. The chewy eyeballs make it extra tasty." Jinnymon smirked, one eye closed. She spooned something round and white up out of her bowl, and swallowed it in one go. Makamimon blanched visibly, the chunk of fish he'd been about to swallow falling out of his mouth and landing with a plop back in his soup. "Hah! Jinnymon is pulling your leg."

Winking over at Gytramon, she added "The mutt makes a good plaything, eh?"

"He makes it too easy," Gytramon nodded, grinning broadly. Makamimon glared at them both sourly.

Already, he could tell that the two of them buddying up would lead to even more torment aimed his way.

"If I was a cruder 'mon, I'd have some choice words for the pair of you."

* * *

After the stew was finished, Jinnymon gave everything a brief once-over with a scrap of cloth and a sparing amount of her precious water.

"Shouldn't be too long, now. For the change." She stated, after taking a seat by the window.

Gytramon and Makamimon glanced at each other, before heading from the fire pit to take seats opposite her.

"The Geoload?" Makamimon asked, inquisitively.

"Aye. Any time now, and..." the scenery outside, which had become clearer after the dust storm had died down shortly after the Patrollers had vanished, was now beginning to glitch and distort. "Here it comes!"

Their surroundings outside of the skyscraper began to shimmer like a mirage in the desert, wavering and rippling. Vast swathes of the landscape were blown apart, exploding into chunks of red particles, that floated up into the nightmarish sky.

Gytramon and Makamimon watched, wide-eyed and rooted in place with horror, as the sound of crackling static seemed to flood into the lobby from outside, until the sound became unbearable.

The landscape was eventually stripped bare, until like the sky above, it was reduced down to wireframe. After that, the wireframe began to warp and shift, changing shape. Cliffs flattened down completely, whilst what had been an expanse of wasteland began to rise up and form into mountains.

[ _GEO_LOAD FAILED, DIRECTORY CORRUPTED_ ]

Gone were the dusty dunes, craggy hills of stone, patches of desert and groves of dead trees.

The cairns had faded, too, as did the mementos left at their bases.

Instead, there appeared medieval buildings modelled after tudor design, with their distinct black wooden beams and white plaster, shooting up like an opened pop-up book.

Dark grey cobblestones replaced the dusty earth. An old-looking stone well took center stage in the middle of what was now a small medieval town.

[ _TERMINATING GEO_LOAD, GEO_LOAD FAILED, NEXT RESET IN 168 HOURS_ ]

But this town was not perfect. Things hadn't 'loaded' properly. Like something out of an unfinished or corrupt computer game, parts were missing and glitched, belching out numerous amounts of corrupted particles.

Most, if not all, of the builds lacked interiors. The well, instead of having a deep hole leading down to water, was sat directly over the cobbles. Sign posts displayed garbled letters.

And the sky was still covered in its ominous wireframe grid.

Once everything had settled, the sky returned to its usual colouring, as dark as the night.

"It's over. It's safe to come out, now." Jinnymon stated, heading over to the door. After she left, and the other two truly saw it was safe, did they finally follow out after her.

The door closed itself with a slam behind them, and when Gytramon and Makamimon looked back, the skyscraper was gone, instead replaced with an old-looking inn. It had only just appeared in a matter of minutes, but it looked as if it had stood there for countless years, the timber framing looking weathered, and the plaster peeling in places. Even the interior was not the lobby they had previously been in, but now a small reception area with an unmanned sign-in desk.

"What... this... but..." Makamimon stammered, turning in circles in disbelief at the radically different landscape. The changes had extended into the distance, too, showing a land covered in dark woods with trees with bark markings that seemed to resemble laughing skulls and pumpkins.

"That's the Geoload for you," Jinnymon smirked, "Doesn't care how inconvenient it is, always happens on it's own schedule, always on time."

Just as they were soaking in the new sights, they caught sight of strange multi-coloured smoke wrapped around the spire of a clock tower overlooking the village square. It swirled and snaked its way down, spiralling and wheeling about the clock tower towards them, before it stopped across from them, directly on top of the gabled roof cover over the well.

And it took a cat-like form, with ears that seemed to keep going long past the points they should have stopped. The smoke rose from two eyebrow markings on its forehead, with more smoke swirling around its legs and coiling in a thick plume around its tail.

"Yo." it said, in a young-sounding, male voice. "Hope I didn't surprise you all, but you three have caught my attention."

Dumbfounded, all three digimon could only stare up at the strange digimon sprawled out above them. It gave them a cheshire cat-like grin in response, which jarred against it's oddly empty-looking eyes.

"Who are you, and where'd you come from? Jinnymon never seen you around before," Jinnymon said, the first of the group to recover from surprise.

"I'm afraid the introductions are gonna have to wait," the newcomer replied, "But I have a nice proposition for you. It'll definitely be of interest to the fine dark horse... or dog? And her wolfy friend, there."

"Oh?" Gytramon stepped forward, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at him, despite her distrust. "And what would that be?"

"How'd you like to change the digital world?" He asked her, having now rolled onto his back. His long tail curled back and forth, making elaborate shapes out the smoke; butterflies and stars, which floated up skywards and faded like fleeting dreams.

On their silence, he rolled over onto his chest, resting his chin lazily on the back of his paws, "No? What if I said you'd get to meet humans, and have all of your questions answered? Isn't that what you want?"

Gytramon and Makamimon glanced at each other. Gytramon took a step forward, before Makamimon bit her tail and hauled her back.

"How do we know we can trust you?"

"Unfortunately. I can't prove myself to you, as I don't have the time. But you can either come with me, go on the adventure you've been craving all the while bringing the change you'd like to see and saving your friends, or..."

At that moment, the entire square was flooded with search lights from a fresh swarm of Patrollers that had all-too conveniently appeared.

"You can stay here and see how long you survive with these lovelies to keep you entertained."

As the sirens began to flare up and the tentacled beings began their descent from the sky, the three digimon all stepped forward.

"Screw it, I'm in. Take me away. I'm ready to blow right outta this joint." Gytramon held out her paw.

"You're not leaving me behind, here, alone, with _her_!" barked Makamimon, shooting Gytramon a wounded look, as he laid her paw over hers.

Jinnymon glared at Makamimon angrilly, and laid her hand over his. She would never say it out loud, but she no longer wanted to live a solitary life in this foreboding place much longer.

The cat-like being smiled and jumped down with a somersault, landing smoothly on all fours beside them. He extended out his own paw, and joined it with theirs.

"Then it's settled. I'm glad to have you on board." He grinned, as the smoke began to swirl and wrap around them all. "Let's get started, shall we? I'll explain everything in due time. Let's go."

Mere moments before the tentacles reaching for them struck, the smoke evaporated, and all four had vanished.

Unable to stop their descent, the tentacle beings smashed into the ground, crashing and piling up on top of one another.

Standing on the clock tower, in front of the bell, was the angel.

He grit his teeth and seethed in anger, before curling his fingers up into fist, and furiously striking the bell. The glitched, distorted sound rang out as the bell crackled and spewed out particles, as the angel spread one pair of its wings and rose up into the sky until it disappeared from view.

* * *

"The false one was sighted in the forbidden land."

"And what of the exiled?"

"Escaped. With the false one."

"I see. I'm disappointed. I've warned you not to let your guard down regarding our... special guest."

"Forgive me..."

"Silence. Right now, what's important is that we need to put in countermeasures."

"You're absolutely right."

"Leave everything to me. I will end this, once and for all."


End file.
